Hot History - Cleopatra - History's GF

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

Welcome back to Hot History! Today we're jumping into the life and legend of Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt. Covering topics from her famous love affairs, education, death and references in pop cultre, we're discerning the myth from the facts!

Hello, everyone and welcome back to Hot History, the podcast where we cover the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. My name's Ainsley and I am so excited to have you listening along as we dive into the scandals, people and moments that shape our past. And today, we are talking about history's number one girl crush, the magnificent, mighty, and ever-mucurial Cleopatra, the seventh. Class is in session. When we hear the name Cleopatra, a number of things can come to mind.

Beauty, sordid love affairs, murder, carpets and cobras to name just a few. And she is perhaps the most debated and recreated historical figure to ever exist. But are we misguided, blinded even by the myths and the legends of Cleopatra that are so often portrayed not just through the eyes of men? but through the eyes of old Roman guys. Where does the myth end and the truth begin, and how do we distinguish between these two to truly understand who the last pharaoh of Egypt really was?

And this is our quest. Let's start with a bit of context. Cleopatra was born to Egyptian king Ptolemy the 12th and an unknown mother in 69 BC. Despite being pharaohs of Egypt, Cleopatra and her family, they weren't truly Egyptian. They were, in fact, Macedonian Greeks, who took over Egypt about 250 years before Cleopatra comes to the throne, and they all lived far more as Greeks than they ever did as Egyptians. Cleopatra, however, was one of the few members of her

family who learned to speak Egyptian, and from a very young age exhibited a strong interest in Egyptian life and traditions. So what was the education of a young Egyptian princess like? Well, from a young age, Cleopatra showed promise in her intelligence and as such, her father gave her the very best teachers across disciplines including medicine, history, speech, military tactics and most importantly languages. If we look to Pluto, he denotes that Cleopatra's voice was like an instrument of many strings, for she could pass from one language to another. And indeed, it is thought today that she spoke as many as ten different languages. And it was this ability of hers that impressed her father so much so that he made her his co-regent. So who else is kicking around at this time?

What does the Telemic family tree look like? Well, it's one of those things that if you try to understand, you kind of just get more and more confused. So for the sake of simplicity, we are going to look at three of Cleopatra's most immediate siblings. Firstly, we have Cleopatra herself, being the eldest daughter, and she's around 18 at this time. We then have As Sinaway, her sister, who is about 13, as well as her brothers, Ptolemy the 13th, who is about 10, and Ptolemy the 14th, who is around eight. And it is these four who will come to play the real game of Thrones, for in 51 BC their father would die, leaving behind the 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy the 13th, as co-rulers. However, they are not just co-rulers in the political sense. For that very same year,

Cleopatra and Ptolemy, brother and sister, are married. I know. I know. It's wild, but if you are a Game of Thrones fan, you'll know that the Targaryens, much like the more modern European Habsburgs, love to keep it in the family. However, in these cases, the throne and therefore the power, is passed down through the males of the family, a practice which is known as promogeniture. In Egypt, it was the opposite. The throne was passed on in a matrilinear fashion, so the princes basically had to marry their same. sisters in order to be qualified to rule. So the two are married and Cleopatra gets to work right away, dropping her brother's name from official documents and having her face and her face alone appear on Egyptian coins. This may seem logical. After all, her brother is 10, but given his young

age, he's assigned a regent, a man named Pythinus who sought to gain power from Ptolemy's position. Cleopatra's independence didn't go down so well with Pythinus and his courtiers who start a revolt against her, and in 49 BC she is forced to flee Egypt for Syria, accompanied by her sister Arsinaway. So now Ptolemy's in charge, or at least his courtiers are, and they decide to garner even more favour for themselves against Cleopatra and her supporters by getting a very powerful ally on side. and it is here that the Romans enter the picture. At this time, Roman statesman Pompey the Great arrives in Egypt after losing a battle with the now very famous Julius Caesar. And after appealing to Ptolemy for aid, he comes ashore to Egypt,

where he is murdered by an agent of the young Pharaoh as a means to try and get buddy-buddy with Caesar. However, when Caesar does arrive in Egypt, he is a year. repelled by the treachery of Ptolemy and his advisers so much so that he seizes Alexandria. Remember, our girl is out in Syria, and at this point she sees the opportunity that Caesar's presence in Egypt can bring her, and heads home to Alexandria where she seeks Caesar out. If we look to Plutarch, he denotes exactly how she goes about this first meeting, saying that she took a little skiff and with one of her confidants in the dusk of the evening landed near the palace.

She was at a loss how to get in undiscovered until she thought of putting herself into the coverlet of a bed, being bound up in the bedding lengthways while her confidant carried it on his back into Caesar's apartment. So how does Caesar react when this young queen is rolled out of bedding before him? If we look back to Plutarch, he says that, Caesar is taken with it as an argument of her wit and was afterwards so far charmed with her conversation and graceful behaviour. While historian Apian states that Caesar held company with Cleopatra and enjoyed himself with her in other ways. Now it's key to remember here. Caesar is 52 and here before him is this young, audacious 21-year-old who was pulled off this pretty brilliant

first meeting, and he admires this, which is more likely why he enters into a sexual relationship with her, rather than her appearance as pop culture would have us believe, which brings us to the big question that everyone wants to know. Was Cleopatra beautiful? If we look to our ancient sources, we find a number of varying accounts, artifacts of the time, including a marble bust and coins show her most prominent feature of an aquiline nose, which has more of a prominent bridge and a slight hook on the end. Historians at the time have made several accounts speaking to her appearance as well. Roman historian, Dear Cassius, describes Cleopatra as a woman of surpassing beauty, while Plutarch denotes that her actual beauty was not in

itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her, but it was rather the contact of her presence that was irresistible. It's this thinking that many historians subscribe to today, that Cleopatra was an average-looking woman of her time who possessed exceptional intelligence and charm, and it was this that made her attractive. Sarah B. Pomeroy, who is an expert on the role of women in the ancient world, attest to this, stating that, however pleasing her looks might have been,

they were secondary to her considerable intelligence, learning, foresight, and strategic, skills. So where did the image of her as this sultry mastermind seductress come from? Well, it was pushed by Western Roman males. If we look to the poems of Propertius, he calls her the prostitute queen, with almost all of the Roman slander at this time downplaying any competence that Cleopatra has as a ruler. The bottom line, who knows if she was beautiful, And who cares? What we do know for fact from nearly all of the sources of the time is that she was incredibly intelligent with masses of charisma and charm.

And she used those to gain advantages with men who could further her own cause. And to that, I say, sleigh. So Cleopatra and Caesar enter into an agreement to go to war against her brother. It's a short war, which ends with Ptolemy the 13th floating dead. in the Nile, and Cleopatra and her younger brother, Ptolemy the 14th, proclaimed as the new co-rulers. So it's all on the up for Cleopatra and Caesar, and a winter in Egypt is better than one in Rome, so Caesar decides to stick around, which proves fruitful, as Cleopatra gives birth to his son, named Caesarian. Now, Caesareans are really important part of this

story, and Cleopatra's life at the time, not just because she's his mother, obviously, but because he is the heir of Egypt, and in securing an heir she has secured her future dynasty, but Egypt wasn't the only thing on the table. As Caesar's son, Cesarian could also be heir to Rome. But before he could be declared as such, Caesar had to claim parentage of Cesarian, so Cliapatra decides to travel to Rome to do just that. In 44 BC, while visiting Caesar and Rome, disaster and big, big drama goes down as words spreads that he has been assassinated. And so Caesar dies without clamming Cesarian as his heir and forcing Cleopatra to flee Rome for the safety of Egypt. Now it's important to do a headcount here. So we have Cleopatra and her son Cesarian

as co-farrows in Egypt. We have Caesar dead. And we have Mark Antony, one of Caesar's old generals, who has entered into an agreement with Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, back home in Rome. Now, this agreement between these two is referred to as the second triumvirate and basically divides Rome's territories amongst themselves, the results of which gives Mark Antony the Eastern Territories, which includes Egypt. Now, our girl sees another opportunity and sets off to make a grand impression.

meeting Antony on a boat decorated with purple sails filled to the brim with gifts and treasures. And when she arrives, Anthony finds her dressed in the finest robes of the goddess Isis, and is captivated and much like Caesar, saw her attempt to capture his attention as brilliant. The two become allies. Cleopatra uses their relationship as a means to achieve power in Egypt and some sway over Rome, and Antony uses it as a fundraising opportunity to continue his power struggles back home. If we thought the relationship between Caesar and Cleopatra was spicy, the affair between her and Mark Antony is the stuff of legend.

The two almost immediately become lovers and in 40 BC they returned to Alexandria where they formed the society for inimitable livers, basically just dedicating themselves to a life of debauchery and drunkenness. and that same year she gives birth to twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra, Celine. But the political turmoil between Octavian and Antony was growing more volatile and Antony is essentially forced to leave Egypt for Rome, not seeing Cleopatra for three years.

He does return to her though and is captivated by her as ever. Cleopatra is at such an advantage over him that she manages to bargain for the return of much of Egypt's empire, including parts of Syria and Jericho from Rome. And Anthony grants her these, and in return, uses Egypt's funds to support one of his wars, which was a big fat fail. But Cleopatra isn't one to let her man feel down for long and holds a mock triumph through the streets of Alexandria for him,

where crowds flocked to see her, Antony, and their children laid out on gold. Thrones. Now this is important here because Antony, before all of Alexandria, proclaims Caesarean as Caesar's one true son, therefore making Octavian, the adopted son, who really is just his great nephew, an illegitimate heir to Rome. Now, to say that Octavian was pissed is perhaps the biggest understatement in history and he immediately kicks off a vicious propaganda campaign against Antony, which hinges on Cleopatra being the evil seductress that we spoke about earlier. As a result of this, the Roman Senate declares war against Cleopatra. So Antony takes up the sword to fight for his lady against Octavian, against his countrymen,

and honestly, ladies, if he wanted to, he would. And on September 2nd, 31 BC, the Battle of Actium breaks out, where Octavian faces the combined naval forces of Antony and Cleopatra. However, it is an absolute disaster for the Egyptians, so much so that Cleopatra and Antony are forced to flee back to Egypt, where Cleopatra retires to her mausoleum, and Antony goes off to fight his last battle. And it is here where Anthony receives news that Cleopatra has died. And grief-stricken, he falls on his sword as a last act of devotion, having himself carried to her retreat, where with his final breath he begs her to make peace with Octavian and save their children. Cleopatra is devastated and carries out his last wish visiting Octavian.

The young Roman, however, is not like the two generals before him and flat out declares that she will be bought to Rome and paraded in the street. as part of his triumph. Unable to bear the thought of this humiliation, on August 12th, 30 BC, Cleopatra dresses in her finest royal robes and lays herself upon a gold couch with a diadem on her brow. And according to tradition, as declared by Plutarch,

she had an ass, which is a snake, bought to her in a basket of figs, dying from its bite, alongside two of her female servants. The story, of her death is the stuff of legend, and the means of it highly symbolic, the asp, in Egypt, is a symbol of divine royalty, and its bite was believed to grant the victim immortality. But did she actually use the asp as her means of death?

There are several problems with this theory, according to modern Egyptologists. For one thing, asp's, otherwise known as Egyptian cobras, were typically at least five feet long, much too large to smuggle in a basket of fix. In addition, not all snake bikes are deadly, and those that are kill their victims slowly and painfully. And if Cleopatra did poison herself, other historians, including Joyce Tardesley and Christoph Schaefer, believe that Cleopatra used either a poisonous ointment or a vial of poison to commit suicide quickly and with relative to little pain. The truth, however, remains elusive. With no known eyewitnesses and no primary written accounts of Cleopatra's death, it is one,

of history's greatest question marks. So Cleopatra and Antony are dead, and at their request, they are buried together. But where? This is perhaps the biggest question mark of them all, because despite her significance at the time, no one precisely knows where the pair are buried. Most archaeologists assume that Cleopatra's grave is in ancient Alexandria, but this would mean that it's currently submerged underwater,

But some, like Kathleen Martinez, believe that she wasn't buried in Alexandria at all, and is rather at the Temple of ISIS, about a 45-minute drive west of Alexandria. These perspectives led Martinez to begin excavations, and since 2009, her digs produced a trove of unexpected relics, including multiple mummies, but still no Cleopatra and no Antony. And still to this day, we do not know where the famous lovers live. last resting places. Which only leaves one question unanswered. What happened to her children? So we have Caesarian, who after his mother's death was hunted down by Octavian as he posed the realest threat of taking the Egyptian throne, and in 30 BC he was executed. We then had the twins,

Alexander and Cleopatra, and her youngest, Ptolemy, who were all born of Mark Antony. After Cleopatra's death, Octavian took the three of them to Rome, where they were paraded as spoils of war, much like their mother was going to be, before being sent to live with Octavia, his sister. The youngest, Ptolemy, was executed on Octavian's orders. The eldest, Alexander, pretty much disappears from history books, but it's fairly safe to assume that he was also executed, and Cleopatra's only daughter, Cleopatra Selene, was married to a North African king, which pretty much brings us to the end of Egypt. After Cleopatra's death, Octavian made Egypt a Roman province with himself as emperor, making Cleopatra the seventh the final Egyptian pharaoh.

It's a big tale and one that has been fantasized and questioned by pretty much everyone. So let's break her down in the context of today. Firstly, where does she sit in history? We know that she was alive at the same time as Caesar, Pompey, Mark Antony and Octavian. She's also born the same year that Julia Caesar's first daughter dies, that's how big of an age gap there was between the two, and 69 years before the birth of Christ. She's also born about two and a half thousand years after the Great Pyramids of Giza were built, putting her closer to the invention of the iPhone than the construction of the pyramids.

She was the last pharaoh to take advantage of the Great Library at Alexandria and was alive to see it be burnt to the ground. She was also alive to see the Roman Republic come to an end, and for the birth of future Roman Emperor Tiberius, the man who would give the order to kill Jesus Christ. She died 14 years after Caesar, 109 years before the eruption at Pompeii, and 94 years before the first Pope, St Peter, the Apostle, is crucified. So what impact does Cleopatra have on modern society? First and foremost, she made an impact in the ancient and modern worlds by simply being a female ruler. But interestingly, in her time,

she was an expert in gynecology, pharmacology and aesthetics, and had an in-depth knowledge of chemistry so much so that she bet Mark Antony that she could throw a $10 million feast and bought before him a vial of vinegar, removed her priceless pearl earring, and dropped it in. She watched a dissolve, drank the vial, and thus consumed more than $10 million in a single setting. She also made monetary reforms, writing her own treaties on coinage, by making the value of coinage dependent on an actual numerical value not based on its weight, and this made the value of her bronze coins equal to that of the Roman denarius, the contemporary currency of choice throughout the Western world. And lastly, what are her mentions in pop culture?

Alongside being one of the best-selling Halloween costumes and dress-up items, Cleopatra is one of the most recreated pop culture icon. We have the play, Anthony and Cleopatra, written by none other than William Shakespeare, the very famous painting of her before Caesar by Jean-Leon-Geron, as well as Jean Collier's depiction of her death. Eugene Delacroix, responsible for the very, very famous Liberty Leading the People, aka Colplace's cover, also painted her in a piece titled Cleopatra and The Peasant. It's also impossible to imagine her without her bold makeup, and she was in a piece.

indeed a beauty expert using Cole eyeliner. Her image, often associated with eyeliner products, is used today for advertising and marketing by beauty brands. But the big one is, of course, film and television. Played by Vivian Lee in Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945, which was nominated for an Oscar. She was played for the first time by a non-white actress in 1999's miniseries by actress Leonor Varella, and most recently in the Netflix mini-series Queen Cleopatra by Adele James, but none are more famous than the film Cleopatra in 1963 starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which led to the pair's romance in real life and the iconic representation of the Egyptian queen that most of us remember today.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History. If you'd like to support us, then you can find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as Hot History. follow us on TikTok at hot dot history and on Instagram at hot history club. As always, it is a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you and tune in next time as we discuss the man who becomes the legend. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.